The Risk of Too Much Charity Reform
Charities have never been under greater pressure to improve their internal management. ALSO SEE:Book Questions Whether Charities Should Adopt New Management Trends How the non-profit world does its work is becoming almost as important to grant makers and charity clients as the goods and services…
By PAUL LIGHT
Contributor
There’s No One Way to Ensure Diversity
To the Editor: Stephen Viederman is quite right that any national commission established to assess the future of our non-profit sector should reflect the diversity of the sector and the constituencies it represents (“If Same Old Suspects Lead a Review, Philanthropy Won’t Profit,” Letters to the…
Celebrate Giving in All Its Variety
To the Editor: The observations that Arianna Huffington offered for the Slate rankings of major donors (Press Clippings, March 9) hit a sour note. By eliminating gifts that are “investments in buildings, not people,” she has demonstrated that her expertise is more suited to political commentary…
Helping to Prevent a Culture of Inadequacy
Foundations often complain about the inefficiency, duplication of services, and “lack of scale” that characterize many of the small charitable organizations they support. Grant makers believe that they are forced to make numerous small grants because there are so few large, well-managed…
By Mark R. Kramer
Contributor
The Chronicle Shouldn’t Overstate the Risks of Change
To the Editor: It seems that Chronicle articles on the future often carry a debilitating comment by the author or a quoted expert on the risks of movement toward a for-profit style of operating. I would like to suggest that we need to critically examine the ideas carried in such quotes, including…
Non-Profit Groups: the Key to a Revival of Civility
The third sector can help save the other parts of society. The survival of the business and government sectors is dependent upon the non-profit community. The independent sector’s power is that it can help save us from a certain style of interest-group politics. Most independent-sector…
By E.J. Dionne Jr.
Contributor
Caregivers for Elderly Deserve Support
To the Editor: Domenica Marchetti’s article “New Solutions to an Age-Old Problem” (February 10) touched a raw nerve with me. For the past 26 years, the organization that I founded, Aid for Friends, has provided free food and friendship to needy and isolated shut-ins. Just last year, I began a pilot…
Pointing Up the Non-Profit Paradox
The power to tax, the legal saying goes, also involves the power to destroy. But the power to provide exemption from taxation may also destroy. That, at any rate, is the lesson that non-profit leaders are drawing from a report released in late January by the Joint Committee on Taxation. Citing the…
By LESLIE LENKOWSKY
Contributor
A Misguided Effort at Patient Privacy
To the Editor: The Department of Health and Human Services’ proposals on protecting patients’ privacy (“Health-Care Groups Fear Privacy Proposals Could Curtail Their Fund-Raising Efforts,” February 10), look like another great government plan to just help you. The problem is defining “you.” It is…
Columnist’s Lament Is Out of Tune With the Times
To the Editor: If only we could identify and educate the spate of new, young philanthropists, then they will stop focusing almost entirely on gifts for the environment, education, and children’s programs, which are so limited, and instead fund social-change programs for the invisible poor. That is…